The Quest For Better – Part 1

It’s been seven months since I made a decision to leave one job and take another. I was on a quest for better.  Ten years ago we sold our beautiful home in the country to move to God’s country in northern lower Michigan – on the quest for better.  A year later I was offered a job in Grand Rapids so we bought an affordable (handyman special) house and moved back, because it would be better.  How many times in a year, or even a week, do we make decisions based on the quest for better?  In fact, sometimes our lives are altered in a heartbeat as a result of something we had no control over.  We ask, how can we get better out of trauma? Does our quest for better end when our circumstances defy all that we envisioned for our future?
I’ve been pondering the quest for better. Maybe you have too. So many choices of my past have been made because I thought it would be ‘better’.  Were they right choices that assured better?  Or if I had chosen differently, would that have led to better?  See, we don’t know if taking one path as opposed to the other would lead to better.  We know one thing – it would be different.   It could be the time of year when we attend open houses for graduates who are also pondering what their future holds. They hear it from all angles.  “You have your whole future ahead of you.”  Well, don’t we all have our future ahead of us? This is a good time though to do as the graduates do and consider what we can do now to have better, later.  One thing we can all keep in mind; Today is all we’ve got. Tomorrow is the result of how we live it.  Our future is the accumulation of all our todays.
Here’s a thought from James 1:25 ”Whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”  This, in essence, is telling us to do the right thing.  How can we do that? Pray for it! In Proverbs 2:6 it spells it out for us. “The Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”  Remember Daniel; the man who prayed three times a day?  Daniel 2:21 “He [God] gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.”  How often do we lament on mistakes of our past? All of that is wasted energy because all we can do with the past is learn from it. We would be wise to drive a stake in the ground and vow not to cross back over that territory again.  Philippians 3:13-14 “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  Forget the past – better is not back there.  It’s forward.
In Colossians 2:6-7 Paul reveals the secret to better. “My [Paul] counsel for you is simple and straightforward:  Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him… know how to live in faith …. Do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And live in thanksgiving.
We’ve got this! Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. No matter what no matter where life is better when God is there.  Let’s get out there. To be continued tomorrow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEBWJ-nxVoM

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